Our little Jack Mason is now 6.5 weeks old, and I'm finally getting around to compiling all of the maternity photos that I took over the past 9 months. I also thought it was rather appropriate seeing how I celebrated Mother's Day for the first time as a new mommy yesterday! I had a nice day; Jack and Dale took such good care of me. I got a beautiful pair of earrings that are Jack's birthstone, aquamarine, square cut, and surrounded by little diamonds. They're beautiful, but not as beautiful as my handsome baby boy!

Anyway, back to my maternity photos. I have to say, I don't technically like the way that I look in about half of these photos. At about the 16-week mark, I remember thinking, "Why in the world am I doing this? To watch myself get fat?!" Haha, but I am still so glad that I did it. Now that it's all over, and I'm starting to get smaller rather than bigger, it's actually really cool to watch my belly (among other things!) grow over the course of my pregnancy. The one thing I was sad about was that I didn't get one last photo at 36/37 weeks. There wasn't too much that I could do about it though, seeing how I was 3 weeks early. My friend, Christina and I had actually planned on taking my 37-week photo the day after I ended up having Jack! So in order to fill that last slot, Jack and I took one last impromptu photo with my chalkboard yesterday for Mother's Day :)

In the end, all of the aches and pains, hormone-induced emotional moments and the extra pounds was so worth it. I know that everyone says that, but it's so true. I never loved being pregnant. I think the only thing that I still miss is feeling my little Jack moving around in my belly; especially at certain times of day when I would come to expect his kicks like right before bedtime and in the bathtub. Giving birth to Jack wasn't the easiest thing in the world, it was actually kind of awful, but I would do it again for him. I ended up being induced early because of pre-eclampsia; thus, the reason for the EXTREME puffiness toward the end there. When the induction didn't quite take after about 25 hours in labor, I did have a c-section. Maybe one day I'll share a little more about Jack's birth story once it's not quite so fresh, haha.

I am almost completely healed, and have officially been given the go ahead to start working out and being active again! Woohoo! Jack, Dale and myself are all doing well now and starting to settle into more of a routine. Luckily, Jack is actually a pretty easy baby with a more mild temperment like his daddy. We did take some newborn photos, which I will definitely be sharing soon!